Shower exploded and flooded whole house after builder removed and replaced

RefluentBeans

To confirm is the guy who fiddled around with the pipes a plumber or a tiler? The story is confusing me a bit. I can see how a tiler can take off a shower unit and put it back on and it generally be fine, but I don’t see how that’s have the knowledge to start messing around with pipes? In the same manner my shower is an electric shower, installed by an electrician but if it started leaking and he wanted to start digging around in the piping I’d question his skills.

As for the can you claim the excess, I’d speak to the insurance. The insurance is good in that you get sorted as a priority and then it’s the insurance that sorts out the claim on your behalf. That means, for example, if you go after the tradesperson (who hopefully has insurance), when you go after them for £750 and their insurance settles with you for that, your insurance company can’t then go back on your behalf asking for more money. That complicated things, and may breach your terms of insurance. If it does breach your terms, they may well come back to you for the money.

Ultimately, the insurance is on your side at this point and you should seek their advice to ensure you minimise your losses. But, being realistic, you will still have some losses I’m afraid. 

PHK

I'm also a little bit confused about who took the shower off and put it back. Surely a builder wouldn't do it. Surely you'd need a qualified engineer for the plumbing and electrics? 

born_again

PHK said:

I'm also a little bit confused about who took the shower off and put it back. Surely a builder wouldn't do it. Surely you'd need a qualified engineer for the plumbing and electrics? 

Has there even been a mention of what type of shower this is?

PHK

No but I assume it wasn’t one that runs off the bath taps because that wouldn’t cause a flood?

sheramber

PHK said:

I'm also a little bit confused about who took the shower off and put it back. Surely a builder wouldn't do it. Surely you'd need a qualified engineer for the plumbing and electrics? 

Was he a qualified builder or a handyman ?
Apparently he did the tiling as well.

bertiebb_2

As expected the builder is saying not his fault its something else - all he did was put the shower back. I know thats a complete fabrication, the emergency plumber said he'd put it back with no washers and overtightened it and broke the shower. I've had a guy in today to refit a new shower and he said the same - pipework is fine it just needed to be fitted properly.

I even sent the builder a video and he pretty said I was lying because it couldn't have caused that damage. Yeh right I did it deliberately.

I've started a claim with my insurer so I'll speak to them.
Question about how to proceed. I've sent them photos.
Are they now expecting me to get quotes etc for everything or do I wait for them to take a look and tell me what they'll pay for? Thats a lot of work.
Also, do they expect me to leave the flooring etc down until the look at it? Or can I do it straight away?

cannugec5

I don’t think you should do anything until your insurance company has allocated a loss adjuster to assess the damage. 

They - the insurance company- will inform you of any interim measures they will permit - including the installation of a new shower. 

Don’t make any assumptions. The fine print of your own insurance policy is your friend at this point. Read it and follow meticulously. 

bertiebb_2

He was a builder not sure of his qualifications. The shower was a non-electric mixer thermostatic bar type. The agreement was he would remove it, do the tiling then reinstall it. 

Im not an expert but the pipes feed through the wall from the airing cupboard behind (where the hot water tank is). The emergency guy told me he'd basically forgot to put washers and then massively overtightened it. Of course what happened this is it failed, water was jetting out the front and into the wall cavity behind. And of course he broke it as well.

Plumber today is saying he needed probably to cut back the pipe, extend it etc and refit the shower properly. The builder is maintaining its a problem with the pipework which he never touched which is a lie. Pipes are fine - after all its a copper pipe running literally 2-3 inches through the wall and ending where the shower connects. The only bit water was coming out of was the interface between pipe and shower unit.

Builders next excuse was oh the shower unit was old. My argument is if he'd told me there was a risk of it failing like this of course I'd have bought a new one.
And the next one - you told me you have problems with the pipes before so its an existing problem. Good try - I did tell him my hot water tank overheated and split a few years ago - nice try that was the tank NOT the pipes.

Yes its probably difficult to prove but I'm asking the guy fitting new shower wednesday to confirm the pipework is fine.

Surely there is no way he can deny all responsibility for something that happened literally hours after he did it?

DullGreyGuy

bertiebb_2 said:
Surely there is no way he can deny all responsibility for something that happened literally hours after he did it?

People can and do deny lots of things that they shouldn't either from an honest held position or they know it's their fault and are dishonestly hiding it. If I had £10 for every policyholder I dealt with who were reversing out of a space when the third party "came out of know where" and they went into the side of them that truly thought it was the third party's fault I would be a much richer man. Lots of policyholders seem to believe in teleporting cars.

Ultimately your insurers will want to recover their outlay if its possible as much as you'll want your excess back so they'll be making a judgement on the evidence and deciding if there are reasonable prospects of success. 

BarelySentientAI

DullGreyGuy said:

bertiebb_2 said:
Surely there is no way he can deny all responsibility for something that happened literally hours after he did it?

People can and do deny lots of things that they shouldn't either from an honest held position or they know it's their fault and are dishonestly hiding it. If I had £10 for every policyholder I dealt with who were reversing out of a space when the third party "came out of know where" and they went into the side of them that truly thought it was the third party's fault I would be a much richer man. Lots of policyholders seem to believe in teleporting cars.

Ultimately your insurers will want to recover their outlay if its possible as much as you'll want your excess back so they'll be making a judgement on the evidence and deciding if there are reasonable prospects of success. 

"When suddenly" appears with alarming frequency in witness evidence.

OP - leave stuff alone until your insurer gets involved.